Cultural anthropology, also called social anthropology or socio-cultural anthropology, forms one of four commonly-recognized fields of anthropology, the holistic study of humanity. It is the branch of anthropology that has developed and promoted "culture" as a meaningful scientific concept; it is also the branch of anthropology that studies cultural variation among humans. The anthropological concept of "culture reflects in part a reaction against earlier Western discourses based on an opposition between "culture" and "n ...

Including:

Cultural anthropology - A brief history Cultural anthropology - Contemporary Theory and Methods

Read more here: » Cultural anthropology: Encyclopedia - Cultural anthropology

See also:

Economic anthropology, Economic anthropology - Formalism, Economic anthropology - Substantivism, Economic anthropology - Culturalism, Economic anthropology - Critiques of the Approaches

Read more here: » Economic anthropology: Encyclopedia II - Economic anthropology - Culturalism

Today ethnography continues to dominate socio-cultural anthropology. Nevertheless, many contemporary socio-cultural anthropologists have rejected earlier models of ethnography that treated local cultures as bounded and isolated. These anthropologists continue to concern themselves with the distinct ways people in different locales experience and understand their lives, but they often argue that one cannot understand these particular ways of life solely in the local context; one must analyze them (they say) in the context of regional or even ...

See also:

Cultural anthropology, Cultural anthropology - A brief history, Cultural anthropology - Contemporary Theory and Methods

Read more here: » Cultural anthropology: Encyclopedia II - Cultural anthropology - Contemporary Theory and Methods

Cultural anthropology grew up around the practice of ethnography. Its canonical texts are mostly ethnographies, e.g. Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski, The Nuer by E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead, or Naven by Gregory Bateson. Cultural anthropologists today place such a high value on actually doing ethnographic research that ethnology, meaning the comparative synthesis of ethnographi ...

See also:

Ethnography, Ethnography - Cultural anthropology, Ethnography - Other related fields, Ethnography - Techniques

Read more here: » Ethnography: Encyclopedia II - Ethnography - Cultural anthropology

Modern socio-cultural anthropology has its origins in 19th century "ethnology", which involves the systematic comparison of human societies. Scholars like E.B. Tylor and J.G. Frazer in England worked mostly with materials collected by others – usually missionaries, explorers, or colonial officials – this earned them their current sobriquet of "arm-chair anthropologists". Ethnologists had an especial interest in why people living in different parts of the world sometimes had similar beliefs and practices. In addressing this question, ethn ...

See also:

Cultural anthropology, Cultural anthropology - A brief history, Cultural anthropology - Contemporary Theory and Methods

Read more here: » Cultural anthropology: Encyclopedia II - Cultural anthropology - A brief history

Modern socio-cultural anthropology has its origins in 19th century "ethnology", which involves the organized comparison of human societies. Scholars like E.B. Tylor and J.G. Frazer in England worked mostly with materials collected by others – usually missionaries, explorers, or colonial officials – this earned them their current sobriquet of "arm-chair anthropologists". Ethnologists had an especial interest in why people living in different parts of the world sometimes had similar beliefs and practices. In addressing this question, ethno ...

See also:

Cultural anthropology, Cultural anthropology - A brief history, Cultural anthropology - Contemporary Theory and Methods

Read more here: » Cultural anthropology: Encyclopedia II - Cultural anthropology - A brief history

Visual anthropology is a subfield of sociocultural anthropology that developed out of the theory and practice of ethnographic photography, film and since the mid-1990s, new media. It also encompasses the anthropological study of representation, including areas such as performance, museums, art, and the production and reception of mass media. Visual anthropology - History. The origins of visual anthropology are located in the invention and application of photographic technologies to the study of human cultur ...

Including:

Visual anthropology - History Visual anthropology - Ethnographic and anthropological films Visual anthropology - Visual anthropology programs

Read more here: » Visual anthropology: Encyclopedia - Visual anthropology

Ethnography (from the Greek ethnos = nation and graphein = writing) refers to the qualitative description of human social phenomena, based on fieldwork. Ethnography is a holistic research method founded in the idea that a system's properties cannot necessarily be accurately understood independently of each other. The genre has both formal and historical connections to travel writing and colonial office reports. Several academic traditions, in particular the constructivist and relativist paradigms, claim ethnography as a ...

Including:

Ethnography - Cultural anthropology Ethnography - Other related fields Ethnography - Techniques

Read more here: » Ethnography: Encyclopedia - Ethnography

The origins of visual anthropology are located in the invention and application of photographic technologies to the study of human culture and diversity (Ruby 1996). Some of the earliest photography and filmmaking was trained on traditional anthropological informants. Anthropologists and non-anthropologists conducted much of this work in the spirit of salvage ethnography or attempts to record for posterity the ways-of-life of societies assumed doomed to extinction (see, for instance, the Nat ...

See also:

Visual anthropology, Visual anthropology - History, Visual anthropology - Ethnographic and anthropological films, Visual anthropology - Visual anthropology programs

Read more here: » Visual anthropology: Encyclopedia II - Visual anthropology - History

Mana is a traditional term and a concept among the speakers of Oceanic languages, including Melanesians, Polynesians and Māori. It is an impersonal force or quality said to reside in people, animals and inanimate objects which provide an observer with a sense of wonder or respect. In anthropological discourse, mana as a generalized concept has attained a significant amount of interest; often understood as the precursor to genuine religion. It has commonly been interpreted as "the stuff of which magic is formed," although this vie ...

Including:

Mana - Mana in Oceanic culture
Mana - Universal archetype Mana - Similar cultural concepts
Mana - Mana in anthropological discourse Mana - Mana in fantasy

Read more here: » Mana: Encyclopedia - Mana

Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, "human" or "person") consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all humans at all times, and with all dimensions of humanity. A primary trait that traditionally distinguished anthropology from other humanistic disciplines is an emphasis on cross-cultural comparisons. This distinction has, however, become increasingly the subject of controversy and debate, with anthropological methods now bein ...

Including:

Anthropology - Historical and institutional context Anthropology - Anthropology in the U.S. Anthropology - Anthropology in Britain Anthropology - Anthropology in France Anthropology - Anthropology after World War Two Anthropology - Politics of anthropology Anthropology - Anthropological fields and subfields

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Applied anthropology is a subdiscipline of cultural anthropology that tries to use the practices and theory of anthropology to solve immediate problems about human beings and their culture. Applied Anthropology is the application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess and solve contemporary social problems. Applied anthropologists work for nonacademic clients such as governments, development agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), tribal and ethnic associations, inte ...

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This is a list of academic disciplines (and academic fields). An academic discipline is a branch of knowledge which is formally taught, either at the university, or via some other such method. Functionally, disciplines are usually defined and recognised by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies to which their practitioners belong. Each discipline usually has several sub-disciplines or branch ...

Including:

List of academic disciplines - Natural sciences
List of academic disciplines - Astronomy List of academic disciplines - Behavioral science List of academic disciplines - Biology List of academic disciplines - Chemistry List of academic disciplines - Physics List of academic disciplines - Earth sciences
List of academic disciplines - Mathematics and computer science
List of academic disciplines - Mathematics List of academic disciplines - Computer science
List of academic disciplines - Social sciences
List of academic disciplines - Anthropology List of academic disciplines - Archaeology List of academic disciplines - Communications List of academic disciplines - Economics List of academic disciplines - Ethnic Studies List of academic disciplines - Ethnology List of academic disciplines - History List of academic disciplines - Geography List of academic disciplines - Linguistics List of academic disciplines - Political science List of academic disciplines - Psychology List of academic disciplines - Semiotics List of academic disciplines - Sociology
List of academic disciplines - Humanities and arts
List of academic disciplines - Area studies sometimes called cultural studies List of academic disciplines - Art List of academic disciplines - Classics List of academic disciplines - Creative writing List of academic disciplines - Dance List of academic disciplines - English literature List of academic disciplines - Film studies and film criticism List of academic disciplines - Folklore List of academic disciplines - History List of academic disciplines - Linguistics List of academic disciplines - Literature and cultural studies List of academic disciplines - Music List of academic disciplines - Museology List of academic disciplines - Mythology List of academic disciplines - Philology List of academic disciplines - Philosophy List of academic disciplines - Religious studies List of academic disciplines - Theatre List of academic disciplines - Women's studies and gender studies
List of academic disciplines - Professions / Applied sciences
List of academic disciplines - Design List of academic disciplines - Business List of academic disciplines - Education List of academic disciplines - Engineering List of academic disciplines - Ergonomics List of academic disciplines - Agriculture List of academic disciplines - Forestry List of academic disciplines - Family and consumer science List of academic disciplines - Journalism and mass communications List of academic disciplines - Law List of academic disciplines - Library and information science List of academic disciplines - Health sciences List of academic disciplines - Military science List of academic disciplines - Public affairs and community service

Read more here: » List of academic disciplines: Encyclopedia - List of academic disciplines

This is a list of controversial non-fiction books aimed at the general reader which discuss controversial issues, or are (or were at the time of writing) controversial for other reasons. For controversial fictional books, see list of banned books. Additional books may be found at Controversial books. This list is alphabetical by topic, and books should be ordered by publication date within topics Criteria for inclusion: This list is intended to be selective, not exhaustive.< ...

Including:

List of controversial non-fiction books - Agriculture List of controversial non-fiction books - Anthropology List of controversial non-fiction books - Artificial intelligence and the nature of consciousness List of controversial non-fiction books - Astronomy List of controversial non-fiction books - Business and bureaucracy List of controversial non-fiction books - Cosmology List of controversial non-fiction books - Drug culture List of controversial non-fiction books - Environmentalism List of controversial non-fiction books - Evolution List of controversial non-fiction books - Feminist theory List of controversial non-fiction books - Futurology List of controversial non-fiction books - Globalization List of controversial non-fiction books - History List of controversial non-fiction books - Media List of controversial non-fiction books - Philosophy of science List of controversial non-fiction books - Politics List of controversial non-fiction books - Psychiatry List of controversial non-fiction books - Race and intelligence List of controversial non-fiction books - Religion List of controversial non-fiction books - Sociology

Read more here: » List of controversial non-fiction books: Encyclopedia - List of controversial non-fiction books

Cultural materialism is an anthropological research paradigm championed most notably by Marvin Harris. As a theoretical orientation within the discipline of anthropology, it grows out of and reflects the influence of earlier positions, especially Marxist anthropology or political economy and cultural ecology. From political economy it adopts not only its characteristic materialism, but also the central concept of the mode of production, while from cultural ecology comes an emphasis upon the study of the rela ...

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The anthropology of religion involves the study of religious institutions in relation to other social institutions, and the comparison of religious beliefs and practices across cultures. In the 19th century, cultural anthropology was dominated by an interest in cultural evolution; most anthropologists assumed that there was a simple distinction between “primitive” and “modern” religion and tried to provide accounts of how the former evolved into the latter. In the 20th century most anthropologists rejected this approach. Today ...

Including:

Anthropology of religion - Specific religious practices and beliefs

Read more here: » Anthropology of religion: Encyclopedia - Anthropology of religion

The word typology literally means the study of types. Beyond this simple definition, the term has at least six distinct uses in the fields listed below: Typology (archaeology). Typology in archaeology is the classification of things according to their characteristics. Typology (anthropology). Typology in anthropology is the division of culture by race. Linguistics. See linguistic typology and morphological typology. Typology is a branch of linguistics which concerns itself wit

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The Neanderthal or Neandertal was a species of Homo (Homo neanderthalensis) that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago, during the Middle Paleolithic period. Neanderthals were adapted to the cold, as shown by their large braincases, short but robust builds, and large noses — traits selected by nature in cold climates, as observed in modern sub-arctic populations. Their brains were roughly ten percent larger than those of modern humans. On average, Neanderthal males stood about 1.65m tall (just under 5' 6") and were heavily b ...

Including:

Neanderthal - Name and classification Neanderthal - Discovery Neanderthal - Physical traits Neanderthal - Language Neanderthal - Tools Neanderthal - Key dates Neanderthal - Popular culture

Read more here: » Neanderthal: Encyclopedia - Neanderthal

Value is worth in general, and it is thought to be connected to reasons for certain practices, policies, or actions. Value is "that which one acts to gain and/or keep." Value as defined in economics is only a small subcategory of 'value' in general, as defined in the science of value; also see progressive logic, which illustrates the value logic of civic morality. Value - Economics. In general, the value of something is how much a product or service is worth to someone rel ...

Including:

Value - Economics Value - Personal and cultural values Value - Marketing Value - Mathematics Value - Computer science Value - Law

Read more here: » Value: Encyclopedia - Value

Archaeoastronomy (also spelled Archeoastronomy) is the study of astronomy in its cultural context, drawing on archaeological and anthropological evidence. One aspect of it employs astronomical examination of archaeological sites to gain insights into the roles of astronomy in past cultures. A second aspect (sometimes known by the term ethnoastronomy) examines anthropological and ethnohistorical evidence for the astronomical practices of more modern, historical cultures. A third aspect of archaeoastronomy focuses on the c ...

Including:

Archaeoastronomy - Some Old World sites where archaeoastronomy is being explored Archaeoastronomy - Some New World sites where archaeoastronomy is being explored Archaeoastronomy - Some artifacts that throw light on archaeoastronomy

Read more here: » Archaeoastronomy: Encyclopedia - Archaeoastronomy